Product Description

In 1993 Sarah Smith was a happy and successful student. At her local pub, she met barman Robert Freegard. Peace was shattered when an IRA bomb went off close to her college and in the aftermath of this terrorist attack Freegard revealed his 'true' identity to Sarah and two of her friends - he was an MI5 spy investigating IRA cells in the area. Because of the time they had spent together and their knowledge of his true identity, Sarah, John and Maria were in mortal danger. Freegard convinced the students that they needed to go into hiding or risk being killed. Thus began a spine-chilling story. For Sarah became a fugitive on the run - living in slums, in cars, sleeping rough in parks, half starved - for ten years. During this time she lived under multiple pseudonyms and worked menial jobs. Freegard became the only person she trusted; he became her lifeline, her saviour and her keeper. So when, ten years later, police arrived at the house Sarah was cleaning, she could not believe what they were telling her: Freegard was not an MI5 agent, he was a conman and she was one of many victims. He had brainwashed her by using such sophisticated techniques that psychologists are still baffled. He had stolen ten precious years and over 300,000 pounds from Sarah, and in the process ruined her life; from others he had conned even more money. This is Sarah's roller-coaster true story. It is a powerful memoir and a profile of a modern-day criminal genius and master manipulator.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63921 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

About the Author
Over a ten-year period from 1993 Sarah Smith was brainwashed, starved and defrauded by Robert Freegard. She gave evidence against him at his trial and he was convicted on numerous charges. Sarah continues to rebuild her life. Kate Snell is an award winning film director and author. She has previously written a bestselling biography of Princess Diana, and directed numerous documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4, Five, National Geographic and Discovery. Based in London she manages her own independent television company, which recently produced 'The Spy Who Stole My Life'. The film won an Hors Concours at the 2006 Banff World Television Awards, and her extraordinary access to this story based on the testimony of key witnesses forms the subject of her latest book, 'Deceived'. Kate Snell is a writer and film maker, who has written a bestselling biography of Prinicess Diana and directed award-winning documentaries. She manages her own independent television company.

Customer Reviews

Fascinating read
This book is just flabbergasting. I feel deeply sorry for the people who had their lives wrecked by Robert Freegard, especially for Sarah. What an evil man. Having finished this book i still can not beleive how gullable this people were, even though i understand how Robert worked. I just cant understand why the parents handed over so much money to him. Nobody seemed to question him and delve further into what was going on. They didn't just hand over a few hundred quid to Robert Freegard, but hundreds of thousands of pounds. Surely alarm bells would ring as they had to fund what there children were doing. Just one phonecall to the police to check him out would of stopped this going on. It just goes to show how comeone can have so much power without you realizing it.

For Sarah it must be hard for her to try and get on with her life knowing she has missed out on 10 years. She will definatly be more wiser now and cautious. Good luck to her :o)

Personally i think this book is a fascinating read, a great insight into how Robert Freegard tricked his way into their lifes, and did what he did for 10 years. Have a read and see what you think.....

I was deceived!!
Unfortunately for me, I forked out $40 on what I thought was going to be a well-written, captivating account of Sarah Smith's ordeal. However, I was mistaken. I found the writing to be a little on the amateur side, and felt it lacked the depth I was anticipating. I was expecting - among other things - a much more comprehensive look into Sarah's psychological state during her journey, rather than just the mostly physical account of events. Sarah's gullibility was very frustrating to me, despite Kate Snell's very brief attempts to help the reader understand brainwashing, and therefore Sarah's helpless predicament. From all accounts, Sarah was an intelligent girl, yet it apparently evaded her that nobody under police protection would be treated so appallingly. I found myself feeling irritated by her for this, and at times felt she was weak. I realise that this was not the author's intention, which is why I am so critical of how this book was written.

I of course have a lot of sympathy for her for being robbed of 10 years of her life, but I actually felt more sadness and warmth towards her parents. It is my opinion that this is because the author neglected to provide the reader with much insight into Sarah's character/personality, which made it hard to feel much for her on a personal level. Her parents, on the other hand, had their emotions and vulnerabilities clearly illustrated, which, from a reader's point of view, I think made them easier to identify with.

Finally, I would have liked to have read more about her reunion with her parents. At the book's beginning, it was clear that Sarah was close to her parents, and in particular, her mother, so it may have made me warm to Sarah if there had been more than just a very brief (couple of sentences) mention of how it was when they reunited. After everything her parents had been through, it felt as though the author had again omitted something significant.

So overall, I was disappointed with this book, and felt that I didn't get a whole lot more out of the 319 pages than I did from reading the back cover.

An Incredible Story
We all like to think we're sensible, don't we? If we ever came across a con-artist, we'd recognize them for what they were immediately, wouldn't we?

Well, yes, we probably would - but that's only because we've had a brief encounter with an emotional con-artist previously. These people are so charming, so superficially attractive, so plausible, that at the start it never occurs to you to look beneath the facade. No matter what your particular Achilles Heel might be - fear, desire, loneliness, romance, ambition - these people know just how to get inside your mind and play you like a cheap harmonica. Eventually, you figure out that you've been taken for an idiot; you emerge sadder but wiser from the encounter, and with the ability to recognize the little red flags that signal a manipulator from fifty yards away.

Those of us who've had this formative encounter early in life are the lucky ones. If one has never had the opportunity to "wise up" though painful experience - as Sarah Smith, John Atkinson, Maria Hendy and others clearly hadn't - then the stakes in adulthood get that much higher. Instead of merely playing with your emotions, these con-artists want nothing less than your money or your life. Or, in the case of Robert Hendy-Freegard, both.

This book tells a story so implausible that, had it been offered as fiction, any publisher would have laughed it out of existence. Yet it's cold hard fact: in 1991 Freegard, a barman, managed to convince three college students that he was a police agent, that their lives and their families' lives were in danger from the IRA, and that they had to come "on the run" with him and leave their former existence behind. Once his victims were safely isolated from the real world, Freegard set about breaking them with professional brainwashing techniques until he had them completely under his control. Not only did he end up getting around half a million pounds from a circle of victims (most of which he blew on expensive cars), he ordered some of them to take menial work in hotels and cafes, then half-starved them and imprisoned them until he was finally investigated by the police and brought to trial.

What's so amazing, of course, is why these students obeyed him unquestioningly (some for years, and one for nearly a decade). This is the only area in which this book is deficient, and one which renders it ultimately unsatisfactory. For a start, Freegard's story was so far-fetched it should have provoked laughter rather than credulity! Although the narrative is punctuated at intervals by a psychologist's comments on the techniques and effects of brainwashing, it doesn't quite explain why it never occurred to Sarah and her fellow victims to challenge Freegard's authority properly (why, for instance, did none of them walk into a police station and ask for official verification of Freegard's story?) The only theory that makes any sense to me is a latent masochism on the part of the victims, but obviously, as this is primarily Sarah's narrative, this possibility was never going to be touched upon.

Besides, even if the victims *were* slightly masochistic, it should be understood that this can never excuse a con-artist. One of the reasons why this book is so valuable, and why it should be read by all interested in modern justice, is the fuzzy state of the legal system when it comes to the victims of brainwashing and cults. It would seem that there is very little recourse for the victims of an elaborate deception: even the charge of "imprisonment" cannot truly stick, as the con-artist's lawyers will argue that the victims were physically free at any time to leave. Freegard's laughable legal punishment will horrify the reader, as will the news that as of now, June 2009, he's free and able to carry out his well-honed fraud on any vulnerable person he meets.

Ultimately, this is a brave book that deserves to be read: give it to anyone you think needs a lesson, or a reminder, of why scepticism should be applied to every social situation without fail.